Working a BullDawg

[JiggingSpoon]

Hey Everybody,

What is your favorite way to work a bulldawg. I try to jerk it around instead of a steady retreive, but i get a ton of follows and a few misses, but just cant seem to hook up with that lure. But seems to be a lot of peoples favorite, just wondering if there is a special way to work it.

Thanks

JS

[therancher]

I like to kind of just pull it and let it pause for a second and pull again. Not really a jerk and not really a steady retrieve. When they bite, it almost feels like when a bass pigs up a jig. Just reel in slack and set hook hard.

[propster]

I would agree with the pull/pause routine - it's pretty easy and it works. You can't really fish it wrong though. You can jig it or jerk it as you described, you can do a straight retrieve and that works too. We fished with Dennis Lappen of Musky Innovations last year on Minnetonka and he does the straight retrieve about 1/2 the time. He's caught some goods ones on dawgs.

[Sea Monster]

I have two 'dawgs; a mag and the middle size. I am curious about what type of rod is best used to cast and retrieve the dawgs? Length and action.

[Fish&Fowl]

I like to pull up on them slowly and let them sink and repeat that action. I only use them in deeper water on edges of cabbage beds or in sumberged cabbage for the most part.

SM-

My med/hvy 7' HMX works great for dawgs, but I'm sure any m/h or hvy rod between 6.6-7.5 would work fine.

[JiggingSpoon]

Thanks for the info guys. The reel/pause method makes sense, then the line is tight at all times. Just the other night i was jerking the dump out of it, but the line would go slack quite a bit, and i got into a rythem. Well one time i made a jerk and instantly the line was tight and pulling hard, well i was in the rythem and just made another jerk and the line went slack and the fish was gone with out me even attempting to set the hook. Thanks Again for the info.

JS

[Woody B]

I also fish tonka quite a bit and have found that slow straight retrieve works great, I try to reel just fast enough to work the tail. On occasion I will mix it up with a quick pump or jerk when moving the bait between sand/mud or weed/sand transitions. The bite can be very lite so be ready to set the hook.

[cjac]

Lots of retrieves work well, it's a matter of finding the "trigger" to turn the follows into hook ups. Rippin' them thru the cabbage works well, as does a retrieve like slow rolling a spinnerbait and letting it "tick tick" off the weed tops. Muskies will still go after a bait with weeds on it. Always remember to finish off with an L or the 8, often times there will be late appearing follows!

Sea Monster

I use a med heavy 7 1/2 for the regular size, and picked up an 8 foot heavy C Series Thorne Bros rod for the mags. Works well for the 5 oz mags, really a nice stick for the money. That rod also works well on the big bucktials like the XXs.